WP, Kurtz: The Anger Factor: "The media are getting mad."

[DeepModem Mom]

The Anger Factor
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 11, 2008; 10:09 AM

The media are getting mad.

Whether it's the latest back-and-forth over attack ads, the silly lipstick flap or the continuing debate over Sarah and sexism, you can just feel the tension level rising several notches. Maybe it's a sense that this is crunch time, that the election is on the line, that the press is being manipulated (not that there's anything new about that).

News outlets are increasingly challenging false or questionable claims by the McCain campaign, whether it's the ad accusing Obama of supporting sex-ed for kindergartners (the Illinois legislation clearly describes "age-appropriate" programs) or Palin's repeated boast that she stopped the Bridge to Nowhere (after she had supported it, and after Congress had effectively killed the specific earmark).

The McCain camp has already accused the MSM of trying to "destroy" the governor of Alaska. So any challenge to her record or her veracity can now be cast as the product of an oh-so-unfair press. Which, needless to say, doesn't exactly please reporters, and makes the whole hanging-with-McCain-on-the-Straight-Talk era seem 100 years ago....

***

The lipstick imbroglio is evidence that the Drudge/Fox/New York Post axis can drive just about any story into mainstream land. Does anyone seriously believe that Barack Obama was calling Sarah Palin a pig? What about the fact that McCain has used "lipstick on a pig" before? What about the book by that title by former McCain aide Torie Clarke? Never mind: get the cable bookers to line up women on opposite sides of the lipstick divide and let them claw at each other!

Obama, punching back about "phony outrage," knows where to point the finger:

"What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw out an outrageous ad because they know it's catnip for the news media. . . . See, it would be funny, it would be funny except, of course, the news media decided that was the lead story yesterday."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091100793_pf.html

[liberaldem4ever]

1. I'll have to watch Reliable Sources this Sunday

Howie pisses me off sometimes, but his show might be worth watching this time.

At least Pat Buchanan or Peggy Noonan won't be on it to spew their BS, although he has David Frum on occasionally, and he is pretty obnoxious too.

[nichomachus]

2. Drudge/Fox/NY Post

Those are my family's sole sources of information.

:banghead:

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Oh, no! That's tough, nichomachus. nt

[kestrel91316]

3. The scales have fallen from their eyes like it says in the bible..........

Maybe it's like in the tale of the emperor's new clothes, and Obama is the little boy who loudly points out the emperor's nakedness, and everyone wakes up from the spell cast over them and they SEE TRUTH......

[hvn_nbr_2]

5. I don't think the "news" media are angry

I think they see the handwriting on the wall and they're doing some advance CYA. After 30 years of covering for Raygun, savaging Clinton, and licking Bush's toes, they're afraid that Obama and the Dems will force de-consolidation of media and maybe even return of the Fairness Doctrine. The word has come down from Disney, GE, and even Murdoch: Pretend to be at least a little bit fair some of the time for awhile so we have something, anything, to point to and say, "See, we were fair." They know there hasn't been anything to point to for 30 years, so they better quick create a bit of a record.

A secondary concern is that they're been so over the top for so long that even the proles and sheeple are starting to see through them and tune them out. What good is a trillion dollar propaganda machine that nobody listens to? They have to make themselves at least a little bit relevant.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Most of the rest of the article sucks.

[wryter2000]

7. This is what I've been thinking all week

The first sign was Tweety on Lipstickgate, but Tweety blows this way and that. What made my jaw drop was ABC's coverage of Lipstickgate. The fact that CBS (with la Couric!) and NBC (GE!) were the same astounded me.

Now, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine."

[LVjinx]

8. The media would be smart not to fall in McCain's trap, if they can help themselves.

They're already perceived as trying to help Obama... More bellicose strategies (ie Jake Tapper's letter to John McCain) will only fuel that narrative. And that narrative has been designed to immunize McCain/Palin against criticism. The more the media seems to lose objectivity, the more McCain will benefit regardless of what is actually said about him.